


wishing on dandelions

by annesslate



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Theatre, popular theatre kid thorne, shy wallflower cress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annesslate/pseuds/annesslate
Summary: High school AU where Thorne is the loud theatre kid that everyone loves and Cress is the quiet and shy aspiring actress who has stage-fright. They meet during the production of the school musical.
Relationships: Crescent Moon "Cress" Darnel & Carswell Thorne, Crescent Moon "Cress" Darnel/Carswell Thorne, Kai/Linh Cinder
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	wishing on dandelions

Cress jumped as her locker door slammed shut, and a flyer came into view, the colourful heading blocked by the ring covered hand that was pinning it to the faded locker. She shook her head in amusement and glanced sideways at Iko, who was grinning from ear to ear, her bright blue locks glinting in the fluorescent lighting of the school hallway. “Do you mind? I need to get my books.” 

Naturally, Iko ignored her, instead exclaiming excitedly, “I’ve done it, Cress. I’ve found our ticket to stardom. Our pathway to Hollywood. Our gateway to a star-studded life of money, fame and glory.” Cress resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her best friend. 

“And what would that be?” she sighed, deciding to humour her. Iko’s eyes sparkled and she waved the flyer in front of Cress’ face until she grasped it. In big block letters was written, ‘ _LUNAR_ _HIGH IS PROUD TO PRESENT, TANGLED: THE MUSICAL_ ’. Cress sent Iko an unimpressed look. “The school play? That’s our ticket to fame?” 

“Musical.” Iko corrected, “and for god’s sake, keep reading.” Cress turned back to the smaller print on the page. ‘ _If you are interested in taking part, whether it be acting, part of set design, costumes or tech, come to the auditorium at 5 pm! And for those who are eager to pursue an acting career after graduating, there may be an opportunity to show off your skills to college scouts! Hope to see you on Monday._ ’ 

“See!” Iko squealed, attracting a few funny looks from the bustling hallway, “This is what we’ve been dreaming of since we were 7 years old. This is our chance to break through into showbiz!” she stretched her arms out into jazz hands, almost smacking a freshman walking by in the face. 

Cress gazed at the flyer, chewing her lip, and she could feel herself going pale. Because she loved Rapunzel, it was one of her favourite fairytales, and her mind was already constructing a fantasy where she turned up at the auditions and blew everyone away with how perfect she was for the role. But she knew herself better than that, and while the whole prospect seemed so tempting now, she knew that the moment she got up on stage, her entire chest would seize up in fear, and she'd be a stuttering, red-faced mess. “Iko, you know that I can't perform in front of people. Let alone the entire school, that sounds like my worst nightmare.”

Iko’s expression softened a little, and she swung an arm around Cress’ shoulders as she guided her out of the building and down the familiar route that they usually took home. 

“I know, I know, and I don’t want to push you to do something you aren’t comfortable with. But I know better than anyone how much you love being on stage, and I wish you knew how talented you are. I cried the last time you performed for me.’’ Cress snorted.

“You also cried at that dish soap commercial where the bear learned the power of love thanks to the fragrance of 'fresh summer breeze', so while I appreciate the sentiment, that’s not the biggest accomplishment.” Iko punched her lightly in the arm as she giggled.

"Sue me for having a _heart_." Iko muttered, “Just think about it, okay? There’s no way I’m joining without you.” 

Cress shifted her satchel on her shoulder uncomfortably and met Iko’s pleading gaze. “Okay, fine. I’ll think about it.”

* * *

The clock seemed to be ticking by slower the longer Cress stared at it, and she let out a sigh as she let her head fall forward onto her desk. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Maths, in fact usually it was her best subject, so much so that she had been moved up to the honours class with all the seniors, while she was still a junior. But Mr Dougall often went into tangents that had nothing to do with what they were learning about, and she was already too restless after just having sat through Social Studies, to feign any interest in how prime numbers help cicadas survive underground. 

She surveyed the room through the corner of her eye in a bid to ease her boredom and her gaze snagged on a particular dark brown-haired boy, who was currently leaning back in his chair and aiming scrunched up balls of paper at the back of Mr Dougall’s head. 

Carswell Thorne. He was known by practically the entire school, but whether he was famous or infamous, Cress wasn’t really sure. He had a tendency to cause mischief in lessons and his constant stream of endless jokes and pranks meant that he was loved by everybody, even the teachers, despite the fact that they had to tell him to behave at least three times per lesson. Cress should know, she basically stalked the guy. Okay, maybe _stalked_ was a bit of a strong word, rather, she knew more about him than perhaps the average person would, considering they’d never actually spoken. 

She knew that despite the fact he apparently never listened in lessons, he was ridiculously smart and had perfect grades. She knew that while he always had a somewhat arrogant smirk on his face, he was kind, and always willing to tutor the lower years if they needed it. She knew that he had mesmerising blue eyes that could charm anyone and they were currently scrunched up in concentration as he aimed his throws. She knew that he was the theatre club’s star and that after he graduated he would no doubt end up on Broadway, or somewhere equally amazing that Cress could only dream of.

She was jerked back to reality as one paper ball knocked Mr Dougall’s glasses right off of his face, and the class stifled their laughter. Thorne had a gleeful grin on his face that abruptly changed to a too-innocent expression as the teacher turned to him with a sigh. 

“Mr Thorne, detention. Monday afternoon.” Thorne’s faux doe eyes slipped away and he frowned.

“Sir, I can’t, auditions for the musical are on Monday.” 

“Fine, Tuesday afternoon then, and I won’t accept any more excuses.”

Thorne’s bright smile was back. “Works for me. Thank you kindly, dear sir.” He did a mock salute and a round of laughter bubbled around the room again, as Mr Dougall turned back to the board. Cress, however, found she was no longer able to concentrate. So Thorne was going to be auditioning for the play, and would most likely, probably, _definitely_ be getting one of the lead parts. Interesting.

She was quiet until lunch, even more than usual until Iko poked her in the shoulder. “Earth to Cress. Have you been listening to me?”. 

“Yes! No. I’m sorry.” she took a deep breath and braced herself. “I think we should try out for the play.” Iko’s mildly irritated expression immediately transformed to one of pure joy, and she opened her mouth, no doubt to shatter the eardrums of everyone within a ten-foot radius before Cress quickly clamped her hand over her mouth. “But I’m only going for set design. I’m not actually auditioning.” Iko’s face fell again, as she moved her hand away.

“But Cress-”

“I can’t Iko. Not yet. But I want you to audition. And set design sounds like fun. Honestly.” she sent what she hoped was an encouraging smile. Iko still looked unsure, but her excitement was coming back, Cress could tell. 

“Okay. But one day Crescent, you are going to get on that stage and blow everyone away with your talent, I swear.” 

“If you say so.”

* * *

Cress and Iko made their way to the auditorium at the end of the day and Cress snuck a look at Thorne, who was in the front row, laughing with his best friend Kai. They slid into seats at the back as the director addressed the crowd enthusiastically. “Good afternoon to all of you! Thank you all for coming here to try out for this year’s production of Tangled. I see familiar and unfamiliar faces, but I promise you that by opening night we are all going to be like family. It’s one of my favourite parts of theatre! I’m Mr Torin, and I’ll be your director, and this is my lovely assistant Winter.” He gestured to the pretty girl standing next to him, and she smiled and gave a friendly wave to the room.

“If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to come to either of us. Now without further ado let's get started! For those who are auditioning for lead roles please head to the stage with Winter, those who want to do lighting, head over to Cinder in the corner, costume and set design over to Michelle.” 

Iko gave Cress’ hand a quick squeeze before heading towards the stage, while Cress took a deep breath as she headed towards the small group gathering around Michelle. She had just gotten to the last step however when she felt her foot get caught by someone’s leg that was sticking out in the pathway, and she began to fall forwards. She let out a squawk and braced herself, but felt someone grab her at the last minute and straighten her again. 

When she opened her eyes, she was met with a dazzling blue, concerned gaze. “Shit- I’m sorry, are you okay?”. Cress’ mouth went dry and she couldn’t do anything but stare at Thorne as he waited for her response but her brain refused to cooperate with her mouth. _Say something,_ it yelled at her. 

“Everything’s fine and dandy,” she blurted out, before twisting out of his grip and walking away as quickly as she could. _Fine and dandy? What are you, an 18th-century chimney sweep?_ She mentally smacked herself in the face and didn’t dare glance Thorne’s way or see his reaction to what she had said. No doubt he thought she was weird, but there was nothing that could be done about that now. She shifted her focus to the bubbly girl addressing the group in front of her.

“Hi, there! I’m Michelle, I’m head of costume design, and this is Jacin, he’s head of set design.” She jabbed her finger in the direction of the tall, blonde guy standing behind her who was leaning against the wall and looked bored out of his mind. He gave a quick nod to the group. “How about we split up into two groups and start brainstorming ideas on what we can do. Then we can start assigning individual projects. Does that sound good? Great. Jacin do you want to take this side?” 

Jacin nodded and beckoned Cress’ side of the group to follow him. “Anyone got any ideas?” he asked, as they sat in a haphazard circle on the floor. Cress began to zone out of the conversation as people’s hands went up. She looked towards the stage and smiled when she saw that Iko had just finished her audition and looked uncharacteristically nervous as she got Mr Torin’s feedback, and got lost in her fantasies as she dreamed about what it would be like to have the courage to get up on the stage. 

She was pulled out of her musings by Winter announcing “Okay next… Carswell Thorne.” Cress watched as Thorne confidently walked onto the stage as if he owned it. Mr Torin flashed him a smile. 

"Hello there Mr Thorne, fancy seeing you here."

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world, Mr T. I'm gonna be auditioning for the role of Eugene Fitzherbert."

"Ah, I thought you would. Okay, whenever you're ready."

For all of Thorne's antics and disruptive behaviour, there was no denying that he was unbelievably talented. Cress couldn't help but be transfixed during his monologue, as he displayed every emotion perfectly, and it was obvious from outer space that he was perfect for this role. A round of applause filled the room as he finished and took a dramatic bow, the amused glint back in his eye. "That was wonderful!" Mr Torin exclaimed, clearly very pleased. Thorne grinned.

"Of course it was," he said giving Mr Torin an exaggerated wink, sending a wave of laughs throughout the room. As he moved off the stage and went to high five Kai, Cress suddenly jumped as someone tapped her shoulder and she turned around to find the entire group's eyes on her. 

"I'm sorry, what?" she blushed as Jacin raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"I said, how would you like to help Scarlet get started on the forest next time we meet?" He pointed at the red-head who had tapped her on the shoulder. 

"Yes, sure. Sorry." Jacin just shrugged and turned to the rest of the group. As soon as he began assigning roles to other people, Scarlet leaned over to Cress and smiled. 

"Don't mind him, he's always like that. I'm pretty sure he was born without a sense of humour." Cress snorted and hastily covered it up with a cough as Jacin shot her a suspicious look. "Anyway," she continued, "the next meeting is on Wednesday so we can get started. I'd figured you missed that since you were a little distracted" she gave a knowing smile before turning back to face the front.

Cress' cheeks were definitely bright red, and not for the first time she cursed herself for having such pale skin. She was going to have to learn to control herself if she was going to be around Thorne for the next few months at least three times a week.

How, she had no idea, given that she couldn't even look at him without her mind going blank. But she had already embarrassed herself twice today and it hadn’t even been an hour, so one way or another she was going to have to pull herself together somehow. 

“What if you just blindfolded yourself so you never get lost in his _ocean blue eyes._ ” Iko offered later that night, as she stabbed at her takeout box with a fork.

"Wow, thanks Iko what would I do without you."

"You would be untethered and lost in this cruel world, obviously." Cress rolled her eyes and sighed, falling backwards onto the couch. 

"Obviously."

Why did she ever think this was going to be a good idea?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I have no idea how active the lunar chronicles fandom is, but I recently read all the books in the span of a week, and then faith and I come up with this idea that literally wouldn't leave my brain until I wrote it, so thank you so much love for helping me! also this idea came loosely from the song "Dandelions" by Ruth B, so give that a listen if you want a song for this fic. next chapter should be up soon!


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